The
Nigerian Senate is an arm of government that must be respected in any decision
it takes in the course of exercising its powers as an independent institution,
the presidency said Tuesday.
The
comment came in reaction to the decision of the upper legislative chamber
to suspend consideration of his nominees for Resident Electoral
Commissioners in protest against Ibrahim Magu’s continued stay in office
as the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The senators
had declined to confirm Mr. Magu as substantive chairman of the anti-graft
office after two requests by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The
president sent a list of 27 nominees to the Senate last week.
The
senators also protested alleged disrespect of the National Assembly by
appointees of the president.
The
Senate has been locked in prolonged supremacy battle with the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, and Comproller-General of
Customs, Hameed Ali.
Mr.
Lawal and Mr. Ali declined separate summons of the Senate last week, over
issues bordering on alleged corruption and non-compliance
official dress code, respectively.
But
speaking in response to the lawmakers, President Buhari’s Senate liaison
officer, Ita Enang, said the administration will respect the decision of the
lawmakers and pursue dialogue with them.
“We
will not question the power of the senators to take decision on how they want
to conduct nomination hearings,” Mr. Enang told PREMIUM TIMES by
telephone Tuesday afternoon. “We will not go fighting with them”.
Instead,
“we will listen to their grievances and reason along with them,” Mr. Enang said
shortly after the Senate took the decision to protest Mr. Magu’s continued stay
in office.
He
declined to say if the president will now ask Mr. Magu to step aside, saying he
will “not go into specifics.”
Shortly
after rejecting Mr. Magu penultimate Wednesday, the senators urged
the president to relieve the EFCC chief of his job and name a temporary
replacement pending fresh nomination of a substantive chairman.
Today’s
development marked the second time in recent months that the Senate would move
to force the hands of the executive on national issues.
In
November 2016, the senators threatened to boycott plenary to protest
a prolonged delay in conducting re-run elections in Rivers State.
The
Independent National Electoral Commission swiftly announced dates for the
elections, which held the following month.
-Premium Times
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